NAPOWRIMO -- April 30

Spring Bending

Again this season, bending down
sometimes on my knees,
sometimes, half-crouched,
trowel in hand, mind prey
to such thoughts as
why I have the right
to dig up yet unburst bud
of dandelion, burdock’s eager shoots;
why it is that the neighbor doesn’t
mow his lawn, tend his garden;
how it is that the thistles
have spread everywhere;
and maple seedlings have stretched their consequence
in the shade of the jackpine.

Spring weeding, and a look
at the farmer’s field next to the neighbor’s
where what we call weeds are thriving.
and then it comes as a silent springlit prayer—

that bending down into the dirt is not useless,
but rather a yearly ritual—

not a burial, but a
nod to that day.